Photo of the Day

from the strange and awesome flickr collection of nequest.

New Predictions for the Rest of 2009

In late March? Yes. Maybe I should re-title this post "things I'm tired of already in 2009".

1. We will continue to be bombarded with calling everything a "stimulus" or "bailout" or some kind. Along with that - all your reasons for doing or not doing something can be attributed to the economy like we attributed everything to gas prices last year.

2. Triangles and crystal shapes in visual art and album covers. Let's not forget the rainbow stripes either.

via fecal face

via Brad Troemel

3. Goodbye deer antlers, hello tentacles.

via juxtapoz

via fecal face

Did I miss anything?

The Work of Matt Bollinger

Matt Bollinger, We Lost the Signal
oil on canvas
60” x 48”
2008
Matt Bollinger, Hypnotism
oil on canvas
50" x 62"
2007
Matt Bollinger, The Glass Heart Clinks a Grace Note
oil on canvas
24” x 20”
2007


These are some of the most exciting paintings I've seen in a long time. His site has tons of paintings and drawings - it was hard to pick a few to post here. Really great stuff and a great way to start the week.

A Pair: Peyton and Giorgione

Elizabeth Peyton

Giorgione, The Impassioned Singer (c. 1510), Oil on canvas, 102 x 78 cm

Painting of the Day

Goya, Duel with Clubs, 1823

New Painting: "Harbinger"

Nathan Abels, "Harbinger", Acrylic on Panel, 11x14", 2009

I finished up this little painting during our snow storm yesterday (fitting huh?). I think half the reason I painted this was to see if I could paint a convincing iceberg and I managed to pull it off. Also, I was inspired by images from a recent exhibition of 19th Century polar exploration-related paintings and photographs.

Paintings by Tim Lowly

Factory . Flame, 2005, acrylic on panel, 11" 15"

Electricity . Sun, 2005, acrylic on panel, 11" 15"

Tim Lowly - site, flickr.

March Blizzard

Modern Art =

New Math by Craig Damrauer

Music for Your Studio; Vol. 5

Artist: Diego Bernal
Album: For Corners (Digital)
Label: Exponential

About (from the label website):
"For Corners is the first full length album from Diego Bernal, a civil rights attorney and beatsmith, located in San Antonio, TX. For Corners is Diego Bernal's love letter to the music, cultures, era and people that nurtured him.
The music is dusty and layered with Latin soul, from the triumphant blasts of horns to the laid back groove of lowrider melodies. It is a call to return to the simplicity and integrity of hip-hop's best moment and an invitation to enjoy a slightly different kind of southern comfort. Not so much dirty south as directly south. The full album is a completely free download. Enjoy!"

Simulacra: Contrail Art

Bill Radawec, Installation View of Contrail Art

Bill Radawec, Installation View of Contrail Art

"Contrails" by Chris Hernandez, 42 x 37 x 3 inches

(me)

I know there are more examples, but I'm not up for a scavenger hunt this morning.

New Painting: "Lost to Sight"

"Lost to Sight", Acrylic Ink on Paper, 22x30", 2009

Elger Esser

Ed Schad at I Call it Oranges writes this about a recent Elger Esser exhibition of photographs, "I love that in this world where constructed images reign [in reference to Andreas Gursky] (at the moment I hope rather than forever) that someone like Esser can show us the dazzling font of reality mixed with human vision. I like this photography of co-existence. I like its prospect, I like that the real is now emerging as something forgotten, something buried, something uncanny. I like that reality can still surprise us."

Mary Weatherford; Vines

Mary Weatherford

Mary Weatherford, Vines, 2007, Flashe on linen, 37 x 44 inches

Mary Weatherford, Vines, 2008, Flashe on linen, 37 x 44 inches

I love it when realism looks like abstraction and vice versa.

This Date, from Henry David Thoreau's Journal

This Date, from Henry David Thoreau's Journal:

"How simple is the natural connection of events. We complain greatly of the want of flow and sequence in books, but if the journalist only move himself from Boston to New York and speak as before, there is link enough. And so there would be, if he were as careless of connection and order when he stayed at home, and let the incessant progress which his life makes be the apology for abruptness. Do I not travel as far away from my old resorts, though I stay here at home, as though I were on board the steamboat? Is not my life riveted together? Has not it sequence? Do not my breathings follow each other naturally?"

Thoreau talks about a question that I think a lot of visual artists ask themselves as well - "is my work cohesive?" or "is this new work too much of a diversion from the previous work?" or to put it plainly, "does this all go together?" I often tell my friends (and reassure myself) that the artist is what ties the work together and not the visual sameness or similarity...as Thoreau so well put on this date 167 years ago.

Song of the Week: Here We Go Magic "Fangela"

Music Tonight: Temples

Local ambient/experimental sound-artist Kevin Michael Richards, who goes by the name of Temples, is playing a house-show tonight at 3551 Brighton St. which is right next door to Rhinoceropolis around 10ish. I saw him play at Rhinoceropolis a few weeks ago and he played a beautiful all-encompassing ambient set. Recommended.

Music for Your Studio; Vol. IV

Touch Radio is my recommended listening for the week. This label runs a regular podcast that showcases many of their artists. Most of the podcasts are ambient/field-recording based works that add a beautiful background to your environment. Here's a description of the most recent edition (#39):

"Book of Hours" was recorded in the remarkable baroque central dome of the National Pantheon in Lisbon.

The musicians (and the audience) were 40 meters above ground level on a narrow circular balcony looking out over the abyss. The main sound source was a crystal bowl, played by João Silva, which was struck and resonated with a stick. Paulo Raposo processed these sounds and diffused them throughout the space via 6 channels, 4 of which were small self-powered speakers, arranged symetrically around the circumference of the dome. Carlos Santos also moved throughout the space and the audience with a small glass and a Tibetan bell.

The sonic interactions in "Book of Hours" aimed to reveal the inherently active qualities of the space, itself a performer in this acoustic dialog."

Variatons on a theme - Damien Hirst on Album Covers

here's the original in all its glory:

Rudolf Stingel at Paula Cooper

two photos of the installation from flickr member ~~IIROBII~~

Jerry Saltz mentioned the current Rudolf Stingel show at Paula Cooper gallery while writing about the current state of the art world in reference to Lisa Yuskavage's work. He wrote, "Stingel escapes the irony and kitsch of the recent past and gives us an atmospherics of melancholy and love. I wouldn’t want any of these paintings individually, but together they charge the gallery with thoughts about what it takes to create shows in the wake of orgiastic abundance. Stingel’s installation is a requiem for the white cube and a fond farewell to the last fifteen years. These four shows make you understand that while the market is dying, art is in the process of being reborn. They may not be remembered in ten years, but right now that doesn’t matter."

I was never a fan of irony in art either - good riddance as far as I'm concerned.

Check out Tim&Vas blog for more installation views and visit the Paula Cooper site here.

New Print on the Knack

Knack studios posted my new print and a couple of other works on their blog today. Check out all the other great places my print has shown up here (eight more places!).

EDIT: Things magazine also put up a link to my work this week as well as Design Crisis.

Photo Diptychs

Diptychs by Anna Cristina Barcelona (Oh Ania on flickr) - see her flickr site here.

Photography by Feverish

photography by feverish (flickr) (site)